The Butterfly Effect
by Fragments of Time
Summary: When Bella is brought back as a teenager, she soon enrolls in college and meets Lilith Pleasant. What she doesn't know is that this is only the beginning...
1. Egg

Author's Note: This story is what I actually did in my Pleasantview town. It's somewhat like a soap opera (or perhaps a parody of one), which is why the chapters are referred to as "seasons."

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Season One - Egg

Bella was a romance Sim with a secondary aspiration of grilled cheese. She woohoo'd with many Sims. One, however, stuck in her mind. This Sim was named Kaylynn Langerak, and she really didn't have any reason to stand out. The only other Sim whose name Bella could even remember was Lilith Pleasant, and Lilith had been her "first." Even more troubling about Kaylynn, however, was that she was a family Sim. She wasn't clingy like most of the family Sims who Bella had dated, but she could tell.

After a while, Bella and Lilith graduated college. While Lilith had her suspicions that she was not the "only one," they had remained together. Bella didn't see any reason to end it if Lilith didn't, and while it felt lonely knowing that Bella didn't return her feelings, Lilith couldn't quite bring herself to end it either. More friends with benefits than anything else, the two girls decided to be roommates after their graduation, neither having enough funds to live alone but also not wanting to move back in with their families.

Lilith watched as Bella went through girl after girl and grilled cheese after grilled cheese, not understanding why she wasn't enough. Was she afraid of commitment, getting too close? Trying to replace something? Did she simply not care for other people? After seeing the woman with her spectral cat, Lilith suddenly felt she understood. Bella was afraid of getting too attached and getting hurt.

Kaylynn, meanwhile, continued to pursue Bella. Somehow oblivious to the multitude of other relationships her love had (hint: it was over thirty) or the not so innocent truth to she and Lilith's relationship, she eventually decided to propose.

Bella wasn't sure if she could change her ways and be faithful to Kaylynn. Still, she had grown fairly fond of her, and she knew rejecting her proposal meant never seeing her again. Therefore, she accepted. Shortly before they were to be wed, though, Kaylynn found out about Bella's affair when an old flame, not knowing any better, began to flirt with her. She tried at first not to let on that she had seen this, but when it came time for the wedding, she just couldn't do it. She left Bella at the altar.

Her heart now broken, Bella started flirting around even more, and eating even more grilled cheese. She would never make the mistake of "falling in love" again, she told herself.

Not long after that, she began to feel ill. At first she thought it was too much grilled cheese, but when a disproportionate amount of weight was shifting to her belly, she realized it was no grilled cheese. She was pregnant with Kaylynn's baby. What was she supposed to do with a _baby_?

This was where Lilith stepped in. She couldn't just leave Bella to struggle. Neither of them wanted to see Kaylynn again, after the way she had left Bella, and it was doubtful that she would take on the parenting role even if she knew. Lilith took that role willingly, all the while trying to pretend she wasn't in love with Bella.

Bella had to cut down on her sandwiches. It wasn't good for the baby. She also had to stop flirting – or, rather, very few women were receptive to the advances of a pregnant woman. At first she resented this, but over time, she found that she was enjoying being with just Lilith. Part of her felt nervous at this. The two of them were becoming far closer than she had ever been with anyone, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. But Lilith was always there for her, and it was hard to come up with any reason _not_ to trust her. Slowly, Bella found herself willing to commit to a single relationship.

When Lilith got them a pet dog, she began to feel like they were all a little family. She had no idea that would mean so much to her. This change did not go unnoticed by Lilith, who was very happy not only because for once it seemed that Bella honestly loved her, but more importantly because finally, Bella seemed to be honestly happy. For that reason, although she was surprised, she was not _shocked_ when Bella proposed. Of course she accepted. They got had a private wedding not long after, a little bit rushed as they wanted to be wed before the baby was born.

Soon, Bella had a healthy baby boy named Kyle.


	2. Caterpillar

Lilith and Bella called over their families to tell them all that had happened – namely, the baby and their marriage. While neither tended to be particularly close to their families, it still seemed somewhat ridiculous even to them that they hadn't shared such large changes in their lives.

Everyone was at least a bit happy for the couple, despite their confusion and surprise at having only heard just now. Everyone, that is, except Angela, who ran away crying. While everybody else was still trying to figure out what to say, Lilith went to talk to her. In truth, there had always been an unspoken tension between the two of them. It was a connection and no matter how they had tried to hide it, they could always feel it. Except Lilith. Whatever it was, she had moved on from it when she met Bella.

"I knew it," Angela said. "Whenever you'd call, that… that connection, it wasn't there. But I thought I thought it was just college and… and you would come back to me!" At this point, she broke off into sobs.

Lilith continued trying to talk to her, but it didn't seem to be doing any good. Angela didn't want to find anybody else. She wanted Lilith. Wanted to be with her. She loved her, and not just as a sister. And if Lilith wouldn't love her, it seemed, nobody would.

When everybody went home, the Pleasants noticed that Angela was acting differently.

"It's just her getting used to such a big change," said Mary-Sue. "She's an auntie now, after all." The two were and always had been oblivious to the "more than sisters" tension between the girls.

And so they continued to tell themselves this would pass and was perfectly normal. That is, until one day when they returned home from shopping and found Angela dead. She had shot herself. The Grim Reaper loomed over her. Mary-Sue begged him not to take her, but Angela was too far gone.

Mary-Sue just didn't know how to cope. Most parents have trouble when one of their children "leaves the nest." Not only had she lost Lilith in that sense, but she had lost Angela completely. She quit her job and decided to go on vacation for a while. During that time, nobody heard from her. Two weeks later, when she still hadn't returned, her husband began to fear the worst. He filed a missing persons report. Not a single trace could be found: she had never even checked into a hotel.

Daniel broke off his affair with Kaylynn and spent every waking moment hoping Mary-Sue would return.

Of course, the Pleasants weren't the only ones affected by Lilith and Bella's life decisions.

Cassandra was just plain confused. She went by off by herself to think a lot and all around acted like a child as though to reclaim her lost childhood. As such, she broke up with Don.

Alexander, meanwhile, started doing some pretty shady things. He skipped school more often than he went. Even worse, though, he started drinking, even at his young age. Even more concerning were the various drugs he started doing.

And Mortimer, who had been left to care for these children while his ex-wife was "gallivanting around," didn't so much as notice. Don Lothario had needed a new Goth to gold dig, which meant Morty was simply too busy making out and woohooing to notice a thing.

One day Cassandra returned home with a beautiful girl on her arm. She announced that they had just been wed. The woman's name was now Michelle Goth. Nobody knew how they had met or anything, but since Alex was high and Morty was busy making out with Don, nobody really seemed to care.

Meanwhile, Mortimer realized that between his making out and Cassie's new wife, nobody was cleaning the house. It was getting a little gross. For that reason, he decided to hire a maid. This made was Kaylynn. Kaylynn thought there was something vaguely, oddly familiar about Michelle.

Little did any of them know, Kaylynn was secretly an undercover cop. Being a maid often gave her the chance to snoop and overhear thins because, seriously, who's going to suspect the maid is secretly a police officer?

She did some digging, and for once I don't mean gold digging. For of all she discovered that Cassie and Michelle's marriage wasn't really recognized by the state because the chapel didn' tbother with the right paperwork. This meant there was no paper trail she could follow; a maiden name for Michelle might just prove her hunch correct.

She sat in the park one day, trying to think of more potential leads. This park was also where Coral Oldie had been buried after she and her husband died of old age. Knowing of their deaths, Kaylynn was shocked to see Coral before her as a ghost.

Coral gave her a tip. Dina Caliente, she said – it was Dina she needed to look into. She reminded Kaylynn that Dina would do anything for money, but would say no more.

Kaylynn had to think of some way to investigate. Dina would never hire a maid; that would cost money, after all. She had to find some way to investigate without being hired.

Seeing Nina as an easier target, Kaylynn seduced her. She didn't have a ton of money, but she knew how to act and dress as though she did. She progressed their relationship until Nina thought nothing of letting her stay the night. Dina and Nina were sound asleep when Kaylynn roused from her pretend slumber and went to Dina's room. Silently, she looked around until she found what she had been looking for. Dina was the type of Sim to carefully keep track of her expenditures and profits, and sure enough she kept a log book. The two biggest profit-earners were also the most mysterious: "Tabula Rasa," one read, and the other, "Vu." Whatever she was doing, it was suspicious. Kaylynn needed to know more.

she looked through the rest of Dina's documents, but there was nothing worth noting. She went back to bed to think about her next step. Clearly, people had to find out about Dina's services somehow, and they had to do whatever it was they were doing somewhere. Daniel Pleasant had said there were no changes or suspicious things before his wife's disappearance except the traumatic event. Unfortunately, she couldn't further investigate because she was no longer a maid there.

She wondered where Pleasantview's black market was. Maybe she would have better luck there. Well, who desperately needed money? The Brokes, of course. Brandi Broke and the Caliente twins seemed to be on pretty good terms, too. She would have to be subtle with this hunch, though, in case she was wrong.

The next day, she strolled past the Broke household in the way everybody in the neighborhood just strolled past peoples' houses. She knew Brandi tended to be a rather kind person, so she figured conversation shouldn't be too hard.

Sure enough, the woman frantically ran outside moments later. Wait, what?

"Thank god you're here," she said, mistaking Kaylynn for the baby-sitter she had called. She handed Beau to her. "I'll be back as soon as I can." With that, she ran off.

Kaylynn tried to inform her of her mistake, but Brandi didn't hear. Well, then, it wasn't Kaylynn's fault.

She went inside and started to look around. As long as she put everything back, nobody would have to know. It wasn't like Beau could tell, after all. Sure enough, she eventually found advertisements for these things, complete with descriptions. Tabula Rasa – the evil spell that could make people forget their entire lives. Vu – short for Dr. Vu's Automated Cosmetic Surgeon, where Dina illegally performed plastic surgery. Just as Kaylynn was about to put away a particularly revealing document, Brandi walked back in.

"You shouldn't go through things that don't belong to you," she said angrily. She pressed a button that locked the door, allowing nobody out. She then speed-dialed Dina and said, "Code I." Within seconds, Dina had used a spell to teleport into the room. At the same time, due to the stress of the situation, Brandi miscarried.

Kaylynn backed up, about to try to diffuse the situation, when she felt a surge of magic go through her, and… and… where… was she? Who… were these people…?

Elsewhere, Cassandra began to scream. She had just stumbled upon the bodies of Bella and Lilith.

They had been murdered.


	3. Coccoon

The Goth family watched the news, all eating breakfast. Kyle, who Michelle and Cassandra had adopted, was finally old enough to not need others to feed him. Mortimer finished his food quickly so he could make out with Don. Alexander washed down his pancakes with some hard liquor.

"I wish we could take Kyle outside," Cassandra sighed.

"I know; he hasn't been out of the house in months," Michelle agreed. "But what can we do? Everybody's pretty much been on lock down. It's just not safe."

Ever since the murder had happened, everybody was on edge. There had never been a murder in Pleasantview before. Never. To make things worse, nobody had any idea who the culprite was. The police were really unequipped to deal with a crime of this scale; the worst they dealt with before were runaway teens. There hadn't been any further incident, but that didn't mean anybody had relaxed.

Don, of course, regularly came and went. He was carrying on a couple of affairs with random townies. So, when after making out with Morty for a few hours, he left, it wasn't even remotely out of the ordinary.

That was when he came face to face with Dustin Broke. He seemed to be seeing the boy around a lot lately, but he had never thought much of it. Dustin was a bit young for him to be interested in, after all. Judging by the look on Dustin's face, however, that feeling was not mutual. There was nobody around and though he had no reason to feel that was, something instinctual in Don told him to run. He turned his back to Dustin without thinking and found himself on the ground. The next thing he knew, Dustin was yelling things like, "Why won't you ever love me!?" And suddenly, he knew nothing. Dustin murdered him.

Dirk trembled in fear nearby, behind a bush. He was hidden and holding his breath to the best of his ability. He had been in training for a police officer, but he didn't know what to do in this situation. Sure, he could arrest Dustin, but Dustin had a gun and Dirk was equipped with nothing more than a pair of handcuffs. When Dustin had long ago left, Dirk went straight to the police station. Dustin was called in for questioning and given a life sentence. It had started when he wanted to take revenge on Lilith and Bella, feeling that Angela's death was their faults. Then, when Don seemed to ignore him… after he had already murdered twice, what was once more?

After the death of Don, Mortimer was heartbroken. This was the second partner he had lost. He died of old age.

On the other hand, Daniel Pleasant was extremely grateful to Dirk. He and Lilith, after all, had been the last remaining Pleasants, assuming one didn't count his disappeared wife. He wanted to believe that Mary-Sue was still alive, but after a while he simply gave up. He was so grateful to Dirk, in fact, that he fell in love. It wasn't long before he and Dirk formed a relationship.

Darren really wasn't sure how to feel about this. Not only was Dirk dating an older man, but worse yet, his son had a boyfriend and he didn't! A little desperate, he began to date John Burb. That's right – John cheated with this brother in law. Naturally, Jennifer found out, and she was furious. She divorced John immediately.

On the subject of marital relations, where was Kaylynn? Last we saw her was months ago, and she had just lost her memory. Well, worried about the Tabula Rasa getting found out if Kaylynn were allowed to return to Pleasantview normally, she and Brandi were married. Brandie told her that this is how it had always been and that Beau was their child, between the two of them. With no way to know any better, of course Kaylynn believed her.

Meanwhile, Jennifer met the Caliente sisters. The three of them hit it off immediately and formed a polyamorous relationship.


	4. Butterfly

After some time, Jennifer and the Calientes decided they wanted to be wed. And yet, it was impossible for the three of them to be married. Not only were there three of them, but two of them were sisters. They tried to find some loopholes, but unfortunately there seemed to be none. Soon after, they all drowned in the pool, and nobody could really tell if it was an odd, coincidental accident or if they had decided that death was the only way the three of them could truly be together.

Brandi freaked out when she heard about the incident with the pool. Remember her ex-husband, Skip, who similarly drowned in a pool? She believed it to be a conspiracy, and she decided she needed to protect herself and her remaining family from it. Somehow, she managed to mess with some pretty dark stuff, and she, Kaylynn, and Beau all had satellites crash down on them.

Daniel, being the only person who even knew Kaylynn and was alive at this point, was going through some of her things. He discovered a journal she had kept hidden. It had things from both before the Tabula Rasa and after. She had known almost all along, then, that she and Brandi's relationship was a lie, but she had played along with it out of fear for her personal safety. If something as minor as snooping got her entire memory erased, she wasn't sure what they would do if it was discovered she had effectively gotten her memory back. In this journal, though, she had written about Michelle. She had all her discoveries in there, with the exception of the very final one. However, what had happened to her proved that she had been correct.

Daniel was furious. Not even remotely thinking, he stormed over to the Goths' house and started a fire, burning it down. Michelle, Cassandra, Alexander, and Kyle Goth all died in the fire and he ran before it burned him too.

Back at the Pleasant-Dreamer-Burb household, Dirk was _not_ happy when he found out what Daniel had done. It wasn't just that his boyfriend had committed arson – "Dude, my mom died in a fire!" In fact, this argument carried on for so long and was so intense that they were both struck by lightning and died.

Darren was then grieving, especially for the loss of his son. He ended up becoming so wrapped up in his grief, in fact, that he forgot to clean the house. He also didn't call a maid because, with everybody dying, he had a feeling the maid would either try to murder somebody or die on their property, now just the Dreamer-Burb household. This turned out to be a grave mistake. One day he made a just ever so slightly wrong step upon a plate and flies engulfed him. When John returned from work, he found Darren's grave sitting next to a gross plate.

This was the final straw for John. He and his daughter were the only ones left in all of Pleasantview. Somehow, he obtained a cow plant. He honestly had no idea how it worked, but had heard that its milk would extend a person's lifespan. If it would keep him and, more importantly, his daughter, safe, he was willing to give it a try. Of course, knowing so little about the plant, he didn't know that he had to feed it, nor did he know how it produced the substance that would prolong their lives. He figured he would just wait and figure it out along the way – it wasn't like it could hurt anything, after all. It was just a plant. Or so he thought.

Lucy saw the cow plant. But she didn't really see it – she saw the piece of cake it seemed to be offering her. How nice! She loved cake. So, she reached out to take it, and she was eaten.

Not long after, John began to worry. It was getting late. Lucy had just gone out to the yard to make a snowman – she should be back in the house by now. He scolded himself for letting his little girl go outside alone as he began to search for her. Wasn't that plant supposed to protect her or something? Like a guard dog, except a cow plant. He tried to tell himself that the plant would protect her and he had nothing to worry about, but somehow he wasn't finding himself very successful in that endeavor. Suddenly, he felt something behind him and when he turned… a ghost. The ghost of Lucy. The last living person in Pleasantview died from the shock.


End file.
